Shoe construction



Dec. 24, 1957 o. CASTAGNOLA SHOE CONSTRUCTION Filed Sept. 1, 1955 B E NR m A United States Patent SHOE CONSTRUCTION Oliver Castagnola,Brooklyn, N. Y., assignor of one-half to John F. Mason, Brooklyn, N. Y.

Application September 1, 1955, Serial No. 532,082

2 Claims. (Cl. 36-25) This invention relates to a novel shoeconstruction.

It has been found that, though numerous shoes have been constructed withplastic soles and heels these normally do not withstand any extensiveamount of use but tend to have the bond between the leather and plasticbreak rather quickly when subjected to strains. One of the objects ofthe present invention, then, is to provide a novel shoe constructionwhich will withstand long use and repeated strains.

Another object of this invention is to provide such a shoe which isinexpensive.

A further object of this invention is to provide a shoe having a plasticheel or sole secured to leather and one in which the shoe may include amolded and contoured arch support as part of its structure.

An additional object of this invention is to provide such a structurewhich may utilize a reinforcing steel shank to give the shoe additionalstrength and contour.

A further object of this invention is to accomplish the above and toachieve decorative effects on shoes without any loss of strength.

Other and further objects of this invention will appear from the belowdescription and the appended drawings. These drawings are:

Fig. l is a perspective view of an assembled shoe of one form of theinvention.

Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken on line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is an exploded perspective view, from below, of the shoe of Fig.1, showing its means of assembly.

Fig. 4 is a partial sectional view taken on line 4-4 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is an exploded partial perspective showing a modification of theinvention.

Fig. 6 is a detailed perspective view showing the inner fibrous bindingmember having a decorative edge portion.

In Figs. 1 and 2, a typical ladies shoe 1 is shown, as made inaccordance with the invention. This shoe has in this instance a leatherinner sole 2 and an outer sole 3. It has secured to it, by a method tobe later described, a plastic heel portion 4 with a leather top lift 5thereon. It has an inner lining 6.

As shown in Fig. 2, a fibrous binding member 8 and a steel shank 9 arepreferably sandwiched between heel 4 and inner sole 2.

The plastic heel 4 may have a hollow inner recess 10 extending above itsbase 11. There is a circumferential supporting portion 12 along theupper edge of the opening of the cavity 10. Edge portion 12 is soproportioned as to conform to the desired contour of the heel portion 14of inner sole 2. This is best seen in Figs. 2 and 3.

The bonding member 8 is preferably of a thickness of approximately onethirty-second of an inch, is flexible, and is able to assume a shapeconforming to the shape of the upper edge 12 of heel 4. This bondingmember may be any strong, flexible and absorbent material but ispreferably made from cotton cloth or canvas. Heavy thicknesses of paperand cardboard have proven satisfatory.

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The material used should, however, be permeable to the cement used andcapable of absorbing it. It need not be one piece, as with fabric, butcan be finely divided, such as cork dust. It is believed that thebonding member serves to provide more complete contact between thesurface of the leather and that of the plastic.

The plastic heel member 4 can be made of any of several plastic resins,but the one which has been found to be best is Lucite, that is,metamethylcryolite. It is important that the plastic selected havesufficient strength and durability to withstand normal usage in a shoe.It is helpful if it is at least partially soluble in one of the normalcommercial solvents, such as acetone.

The spring shank member 9 is preferably cut from a good grade oflight-weight spring steel and is covered with adhesive tape or moleskinand is of elongated form shaped to conform to the desired contour of theinner sole of the completed shoe.

In assembling the shoe in the preferred embodiment of this invention, adecorative binding member 20 may first be positioned about the edge ofinner sole 2. This member may be of any color desired and is preferablysimply a cotton or leather cloth strip which is folded about the edge ofthe inner sole 2 in its heel portion 14 and secured in place with anadhesive such as pyroxolin in acetone cement. Bonding strip 20 is shownpartially secured to inner sole 2 in Fig. 3.

Steel shank 9 is positioned upon inner sole 2; and the bonding member 8is dipped in acetone briefly and then placed over inner sole 2 and shank9, as shown in Fig.

3 A layer of the pyroxolin cement is sandwiched between bonding member 8and sole 2 and in the preferred form of the invention an absorbentbonding dust 21 is also sandwiched between these members. The bondingdust may be a finely divided cork dust finely divided sawdust, or anycomparable material which is resilient and will absorb the cement used.Bonding dust 21, when saturated with the pyroxolin cement, acts as afiller between bonding member 8 and inner sole 2, thus resulting inbonding contact between the two for the entire area in which theyoverlie one another.

In addition, to provide better contact, bonding member 8 is usually cutwith the general T-shaped cut 22 shown in Figs. 3 and 6, so that it maypass about shank 9 and be in even greater contact with inner sole member2. The functional value of this cut is improved if at the ends andpoints of intersection of the lines of the cut 22 the cut is somewhatwidened by larger holes.

After the bonding member 8 is in place, its edge portion is coated withthe pyroxolin cement and the edge 12 of heel 4 positioned against it.The entire assembly is preferably then subjected to pressure in order tomaintain it in shape until the cement has hardened. Additionally, it isadvisable to hold the more central portion of bonding member 8 in closecontact with inner sole 2 during drying. This is best done by driving afew tacks (not shown) through bonding member 8 and into inner sole 2before attaching heel member 4.

It will be seen from the foregoing that a bond has been obtained overthe maximum area of contact possible, due to the use of the flexible andabsorbent bonding member 8 and the bonding dust 21. These give a moreflexible and more secure bond.

In Fig. 5, a modification of the invention is shown in which the bondingmember 8 has not been used in direct contact with heel 4 itself. Here,the heel 4 is assembled to leather insole member 2 by the use of theintermediate conformed plastic bonding member 25. The lower peripheralsurface of plastic bonding member 25 has been molded or ground toconform to the upper edge surface 12 of heel 4, the member 25 preferablybeing made of the 3 1 2 ypev of. plastic as. heel member 4. Member 25hpl lsl be. atleast a ge. enough. ewver s ace. bu preferably will extenddownwardly along innersole 2 toward the ball of the foot so as toprovide arch support.

ma bepe ma m w ec red to heel; by. h u e. o a n roxqlinrcementon vhi enre he i i t ep n; afifim l Qfr h he Qf: hi mod ic ti n After. plasti bndin mem er 5;. a h e ave n cemented together andtthe cementhashardened,an additional layer; of the cement with bonding dust mixed or dispersedthereinis placedover the entire upper surface of heel; b o nding member2 and the lower surface of inner s e snla ediuntl r p e sn e e nstm m rAfter his: men h sjdri d t e pre su e le sed, a d, nce ag l'n, itwillbefound that a firm and permanent bondhas been attained.

It t has beenfound that if plastic bonding member is extendedforwalrd.of the heelv and isshaped to conform to the foot, it will provide anexcellent archfsupport, in addi-' ti'o'nto strengtheningthe shoe.

Fig. 6 is a detaile d drawing showing a means of applying a decorativeband-30about the flexib'lebonding member- Q8; In this, instance, thebond is preferably of acolored clgth'or leather which ispo'sitionedabout and cementedto the edges of bonding member 8, as shown in Fig}The, use of such a decorative band30 in the assenibled shoe is shown inthe cross-sectionaldrawing of F t It is understood that variousmodifications of this invention may be made without departing from thespirit he eof:

I'clairn:

1. In ashoe of the character described in combination a sole, a heelhaving a portionof its upper surface shaped to substantially conform toa portion of said sole, a bonding member interposed between said soleand said heel, id. bondinamember. ein pab e. Qf. eing. bonded. by. andabsorbing cement, a resilient metal shank of lesser width than said soleadapted to fit beneath a portion of said sole and between said sole andsaid heel and shaped to define the finished conformity of said sole,said shank having an end positioned between said bonding member and saidsole, and cementrdistrihuted between said bonding member and, said heeland said bonding member and said inner sole immersing an end of saidshank in cement.

2:. In a shoe ofthecharacter describedin combination;

tween said heel portion and said bonding member atsaid; axial slot, andcement distributed between said bonding member andsaid plasticheel andbetween said bonding member, said heel portion and said end portion ofsaid,

shank.

References Cited-inthe file of this patent UNITED STATES-,BATENTS 1964,767 Pollard July 3, 1934, 1,973,785 Walsh Sept. 18, 1934 2,267,125Molnar Dec. 23; 1941 2,288,475 Mariani June 30, 1942 2,303,431 BrophyDec. 1, 1942 2,559,609 Foust' July 10, 1951

